Chinese Agencies Fight For Control Of Web Game

JOE McDONALD

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese regulators are fighting over the right to oversee "World of Warcraft," a popular online game, in a bizarre battle that has thrust bureaucratic rivalry for control of the Internet into the open.

The bureau that licenses publishers said this week the game's Chinese operator failed to obtain required import approval and should stop signing up customers. Its rival, the Ministry of Culture's cultural products department, fired back that it was the regulator of online games and said the Web site's paperwork was in order.

The squabble has given the Chinese public a rare glimpse into the struggles between bureaucrats over who gets to regulate the Internet and other promising new industries and reap the added influence and revenues that can bring.

"If you supervise a more dynamic area with a lot of growth potential, you have more budget and more administrative muscle," said Edward Yu, president of Analysys International, an Internet research firm in Beijing. "They see this pie is getting bigger and bigger, so it is no wonder different administrations are fighting over pieces of that territory."

China went through similar struggles as regulators fought earlier this decade over who would control and tax online commerce. But the latest clash appears more acrimonious, possibly because regulators see the Internet spreading to nearly every industry, bringing a windfall of status to any official associated with it.